Flickr / Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association

Maybe we can rest a little easier this weekend knowing that, thanks to a federal court, mail delivery may be back on track soon. Delays of mail — including life-saving medications — alerted the public to the possibility that these delays were leading up to a delay of election-related mail, including absentee ballots. But, now a federal judge’s order is protecting the US Postal Service.

The court’s conclusion

Judge Stanley Bastian blocked the US Postal Service from making any of DeJoy’s changes until after the November 3 election. Furthermore, all election mail is to be treated as First Class mail regardless of postage. Finally, Judge Bastian ordered the reversal of any damage to USPS function caused so far.

“Although not necessarily apparent on the surface, at the heart of DeJoy’s and the Postal Service’s actions is voter disenfranchisement,” the judge ruled in Eastern Washington’s US District Court.

The evidence

The judge pointed to several factors in his ruling. Slowed delivery has already impacted recent primary elections by causing ballots to go uncounted. At the same time, both the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have tried to stop states from using dedicated ballot drop-boxes to avoid a potential slowdown in the mail.

The court sees that as an attempt to limit the delivery of ballots rather than to foster free and fair voting.

To the court, mail equipment suffered from targeted removal

Not only was there clear evidence to the court that mail has been slowed, but the areas affected by the removal of equipment is suspicious. Judge Bastian wrote that “72% of the … high speed mail sorting machines that were decommissioned were located in counties where Hillary Clinton received the most votes in 2016.”

The proof and the pudding

Judge Bastian included, “President Trump’s highly partisan words and tweets,” in his list of reasons for concluding that this is “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service.”

The Judge also remarked on the irony that while US attorneys (under the supervision of Attorney General William Barr) argued that citizens should vote in person during the coronavirus pandemic, those attorneys insisted on arguing this case on a video conference.

Taking all of this into account, Judge Bastian ruled that disruptions to the mail were an election meddling scheme. “It is easy to conclude that the recent Postal Services’ changes is an intentional effort on the part of the current Administration to disrupt and challenge the legitimacy of upcoming local, state, and federal elections.”

Keeping DeJoy honest

Since Trump Postmaster Louis DeJoy took over, sorting machines and mailboxes have been removed, and mail carriers have been sent out on their routes before gathering all of the mail that they might have been able to deliver. DeJoy, who lacks the prior experience one might expect in the top official at the USPS, claimed that his changes were aimed at making the Post Office more efficient.

He admitted to a Senate Committee that there had been delays in deliveries. Dejoy also promised that, despite late mail accumulating in delivery centers, election-related mail would receive priority treatment. Despite his testimony, DeJoy continued to enforce changes that slowed the delivery process and caused more and more mail to accumulate while waiting for delivery.

But now, for the time being, we can rest easier with Judge Bastian’s mail court order.